Editorial: Arsenals imperil any gun remedy, yet Congress must act

Mar. 28, 2013

Jennifer Cherico and George McChain of North White Plains attend a Dec. 19 candlelight vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting at Union Baptist Church in White Plains. / Ricky Flores/The Journal News

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| A Journal News editorial

Dave DeVarti of Ann Arbor, Mich., left, and Dan Mendelson of the Washington area hold a sign on Capitol Hill during a news conference March 12 to greet members of the Sandy Hook Ride on Washington, a team of 26 cyclists who rode from Newtown, Conn., to the Capitol to call for legislation to curb gun violence. / AP/Carolyn Kaster

AFTER NEWTOWN

The Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School started a fresh discussion about ending gun violence. Follow the debate online at http://www.lohud.com/afternewtown. Join the discussion on Twitter by using #AfterNewtown.

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There are a couple of relevant takeaways from Thursday’s release of documents in the Newtown, Conn., massacre: (1) Shooter Adam Lanza had a vast arsenal of firearms and ammunition at his fingertips — and National Rifle Association certificates attesting to his prowess; and (2) the “gun-control” remedies being touted in Washington and so many statehouses would do next to nothing to reduce such arsenals. That says more about our gun laws and culture, and our tolerance for unspeakable harm, than about the dead gunman.

The documents released by Connecticut officials confirm much of what is already known of Lanza, who shot and killed his mother in their home Dec. 14 before driving to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School. There, he killed 20 first-graders and six educators before taking his own life. Lanza had ready access to a trove of weapons, including a .22-caliber rifle, a .223-caliber model XM15 rifle, a Glock 10 mm handgun, a 9 mm Sig Sauer P226 handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, an assortment of knives and swords, and enough bullets to equip a rebel army. He also had a penchant for journal-writing, playing video games and reading. His library included the NRA’s “Guide to the Basics of Pistol Shooting.”

Come 100 days

Connecticut state officials said all of the weapons used in the shooting spree were purchased legally by Nancy Lanza, the gunman’s mother, whose gun locker was found unlocked, with no indication it had been broken into. The documents showed that Nancy Lanza, apparently shot as she slept, even looked to augment her son’s firearms trove: She wrote a check to the killer for the purchase of a new gun. The draft was tucked inside a holiday card. Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III: “There is currently no indication that the shooter attempted to purchase the guns and was denied.” Lanza obviously didn’t have to go that route.

The document release came the same day President Barack Obama scolded lawmakers for not embracing his most far-reaching gun-control measures, including a ban on assault weapons and limits on the size of ammunition clips; other measures would require universal background checks for buyers and remove the shackles on researchers looking to study gun violence, which claims more than 30,000 lives each year. “Shame on us if we’ve forgotten,” the president said from the White House, 100 days since the Newtown massacre. “I haven’t forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we’ve forgotten.”

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Facing facts

Obama said “tears aren’t enough.” Yet the White House proposals, like most of the gun-control measures touted in statehouses, are largely silent about weapons already in the nation’s bulging firearms closet — an estimated 300 million. Those firearms are largely “grandfathered” in, or exempted, from any new proposed restrictions at the federal or state levels; and key members of Congress have already signaled that no new weapons bans are likely to pass. Additionally, much-touted proposals to bolster background checks for buyers — as part of new efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the seriously mentally ill — suffer from an important defect: Mental-health experts say they cannot predict, on an individual basis, who will be the next Adam Lanza. Moreover, too many states are reluctant to intervene even where there is a known threat — such as where a firearms-owning spouse has threatened violence.

That doesn’t mean Congress should delay any more than it has in passing smart gun-law reforms; negligent lawmakers already have a shocking amount of blood on their hands. But at some point the American people, and policymakers, will have to come to terms with a harsh reality — the bed we have collectively made: The problem is the guns, the guns, and the guns, and their omnipresence among a flawed people.

It will take more than tears, and gnashing of teeth, to change that score — or to prevent future heartbreak like Newtown.